Current position: Phd student in Physics at the University of Catania, Curriculum Nuclear and Particle Physics.
2021: scholarship granted by CSFNSM.
2019-2021MSc in Physics (Curriculum Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics), 110/110 cum laude. Title of the thesis: Measurement of the forward eta production cross section in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the LHCf Arm2 detector.
2016-2019: BSc in Physics, 103/110. Title of the thesis: Production of light nuclei and antinuclei in the ALICE experiment at LHC.
LHCf is one of the ongoing experiments at CERN in Geneva and plays a key role in the study of ultra-energetic cosmic rays. In fact, the direct detection of ultra-energetic CRs is not possible, and the various experiments that measure their spectrum in this energy region, including Auger, are based on the detection of secondary particles produced (EAS) and the measurement of the spectrum depends on significant way from the hadronic interaction model considered to describe the collision between primary cosmic rays and the atmosphere. For this reason, it is necessary to perform a calibration of the models used. This can be carried out by measuring neutral particles produced forwards to the collision direction, i.e., at very high pseudorapidity values, and by comparing the experimental results with the different Monte Carlo codes used in CR physics, in order to be able to calibrate and discriminate which are the most suitable to reproduce the experimental data. The LHCf experimental apparatus, formed by two calorimetric arms, each made up of two towers of different sizes, allows to carry out these studies for various types of collision (proton-proton, proton-ion) at different energy. During the PhD I will deal with the study of the data that the experiment will collect during the LHC RUN III. The new data taking will allow to obtain the results previously obtained from the collaboration up to an energy of 14 TeV in the center of mass, exploiting the upgrade of the detector which will allow to work at a higher luminosity regime and performing data taking combined with the ATLAS experiment. Furthermore, the possibility of using oxygen ion beams to create p-O and O-O collisions is under study.